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Post by Chris W on Jan 30, 2007 19:04:24 GMT
Something just hit me.....  Why were the colours used to represent each of the LU lines chosen for that line? District = green Circle - yellow Bakerloo = brown etc. etc. etc. You get the idea: anyone  |
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Post by Chris M on Jan 30, 2007 19:17:45 GMT
Well the Met's colour is derived from its original maroon livery, I think the District green may have a similar origin.
The maps produced by the Central London Railway before it was part of any grouping all showed their route as a red line, although this could be coincidence.
The Jubilee Line is silver because it was named for the queen's silver jubilee, apparently when it was in the planning stages as the Fleet Line it was shown on (internal) maps in purple.
I remember somebody saying that the Northern is black to provide the greatest contrast with the Central Line red (the CX branch of the northern and the Central form the vertical and horizontal axis around which the tube map was constructed - hence the tower above Tottenham Court Road is called Centre Point)
I guess the H&C being pink is a result of the maroon of the met being lightened.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2007 19:21:29 GMT
I can't really answer the question, but I do know that the Victoria Line was originally going to be lilac until it was found that you can't do enamel signs in that colour! So it was changed to light blue.
The earliest pocket maps showing the line under construction have it in lilac.
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Post by Chris W on Jan 30, 2007 20:15:56 GMT
I guess the H&C being pink is a result of the maroon of the met being lightened. Perhaps thats because pink is the sum of maroon & yellow - just a thought   |
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Ben
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Post by Ben on Jan 30, 2007 21:30:57 GMT
The Bakerloo was changed to brown by Beck; this was because the central was orange and the bakerloo red. Orange is tonally weak, so it didnt really suit the horizontal axis of the original diagram. Theres some theory about the jubilee line origionally being based on battleship grey, continuing the maratime theme 'fleet line'. The piccadilly was at the start shown in yellow; this was then changed to blue, which over the years got darker. The W&C colour I suspect reflects the colour of the thames; ie opaque and questionable  |
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Post by tubeprune on Jan 30, 2007 21:34:16 GMT
The Met. was green for years.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2007 23:09:46 GMT
How about the East London Line? Why light orange?
And what was the deal with the Met being green? Was it done deliberately by the LPTB in order to diminish the rivalry of the lines?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 3:11:43 GMT
When London Transport was formed in 1933, the Underground Group (which included the District) effectively took over the Met.
The Met and District jointly ran the Circle, and shared tracks from Rayners Lane to Uxbridge and east of Aldgate. Some genius at 55 Broadway came up with the idea of running the District and Met as one line, perhaps with workings such as Uxbridge - Baker Street - Aldgate - Earl's Court - Uxbridge. This never occurred: timetabling, train paths, and driver training would have been very difficult, and WW2 got in the way of anything new.
LT gave up, kept the old service patterns, and adopted maroon for the Met. (Incidentally, Chris, I thought the Met stock was mostly varnished teak rather than maroon painted???)
It's anyone's guess why the H&C now has a separate colour while the Wimbleware service is the same colour as the real District.
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Post by compsci on Jan 31, 2007 6:40:17 GMT
It occurred to me a while ago that choosing colours for any future line is going to be rather difficult. A lime green (as used to represent the proposed chelney line on some maps or half of a split northern) might do, but after that I can't think of any more colours which wouldn't be too close to those existing to be immediately distinguishable.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 8:10:58 GMT
Theres some theory about the jubilee line origionally being based on battleship grey, continuing the maratime theme 'fleet line'. The "fleet line" was named after the river fleet, and not after a maritime fleet! |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 10:41:26 GMT
It occurred to me a while ago that choosing colours for any future line is going to be rather difficult. A lime green (as used to represent the proposed chelney line on some maps or half of a split northern) might do, but after that I can't think of any more colours which wouldn't be too close to those existing to be immediately distinguishable. Ummm. The Paris Metro manages to find colours for 14 lines.... But we are not supposed to say that another city's metro is more complex than LU. |
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Post by amershamsi on Jan 31, 2007 15:09:07 GMT
The Fleet line was originally going to be Orange, like the East London Line is now
Plenty more line colours on the 2016 map, and that doesn't use Chelney green or Victoria Lilac- there's Purple, Peach, Pale Purple, Dark Grey and Mid Green. Plus you could reuse orange.
and if you run out of colours, there's always line styles!
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Post by Chris M on Jan 31, 2007 17:39:36 GMT
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Post by towerman on Jan 31, 2007 20:31:29 GMT
The reason the H & C has it's own colour is that in the early 80's it was seperated from the Met and had it's own General Manager and support staff and the colour was changed on the maps to re-inforce the idea of a seperate line to the punters.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 22:00:57 GMT
It could be argued that services are what matter to the punters, and that management structure is irrelevant to them.
The Wimbleware service is just as separate as the H&C, and it would be a good idea to let the punters know about this.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 22:24:33 GMT
I've seen a prototype map somewhere that had the East London in pink, with orange used for one half of the Northern (when they were considering splitting the Northern into separate lines). It could be argued that services are what matter to the punters, and that management structure is irrelevant to them. The Wimbleware service is just as separate as the H&C, and it would be a good idea to let the punters know about this. Operationally the Wimblewares are part of the District, staffed by District drivers. And don't forget that they frequently get diverted to other parts of the District when required. Changing from "this is a District line train to Wimbledon" to "this is a District line train to Ealing Broadway" is less confusing for the pax than suddenly changing from "this is a Hammersmith & City line train to Wimbledon" to "this is a District line train to Ealing Broadway". (Having said that, District line trains to Edgware Road do occasionally change mid-trip to Circle or H&C destinations, but this is less common and requires a change of driver). And in the recent Acton-Earls Ct weekend engineering work, the C stocks were running Olympia - Edgware Road. |
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Post by towerman on Jan 31, 2007 23:12:39 GMT
I suspect that the reason the Wimbledon-Edgware Rd service has stayed green on the maps is that it was operated by District stock until the advent of the C stock and grouping it in with the H & C or Met would only have confused our wonderful customers.
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Post by Phil on Jan 31, 2007 23:24:25 GMT
And while the Vic was under construction some of the maps showed it as (royal) purple for a while.
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Post by mandgc on Feb 1, 2007 8:30:21 GMT
The Metropolitan Railway was first shown as Maroon on the 'joint' Underground maps from 1926. ( It has previously been shown Red up to that time.) This was well before the Railway was absorbed in the LPTB and the colour was continued by Beck on his new diagram.
The two surface lines were both shown Green from 1937 as part of a scheme to introduce more interworking between the two lines (the extension of Uxbridge trains to Barking was part of this - though they were later replaced by H&C trains in 1940. The Met. regained its own colour again in 1949.
District Rly. Putney Bridge trains were extended from High Street Ken. to the new enlarged Edgware Road station in 1926 as part of a general rearrangement of rosters between the two Railways.(Some Daily DR rosters over the Inner Circle became Sundays only) and on the Friday before Bank Holiday weekends some District trains continued on to Liverpool Street Bay Platform in off peak times to provide an enhanced service.
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